Thermotherapy devices are used for the care and therapy of premature babies or neonates and infants (patients). A basic housing has a support for the neonate or premature baby. In general, transparent walls are arranged at the basic housing, and the transparent walls can be closed by a movable and transparent covering hood. In a closed position of the covering hood, the basic housing forms an airtight incubator together with the side walls and with the covering hood. Within this airtight housing, the air within the incubator is maintained at a preset temperature by an electric heating means, especially one designed as a convection heater with a blower, and a preset humidity of the air is maintained in the incubator with an air humidifier. Furthermore, a preset oxygen content can also be set in the air within the closed housing of the incubator with an additional oxygen-enriching means.
Thermotherapy devices may also be designed as hybrids. Hybrids are additionally provided with a heat radiation source, e.g., an infrared radiator, and when the covering hood is opened, i.e., when the basic housing is not closed by the covering hood, the patient to be treated is irradiated on the support with infrared rays by means of the heat radiation source and sufficient temperature of the patient or neonate on the support is guaranteed as a result. Even though very good accessibility to the neonate on the support is guaranteed, on the one hand, in an open thermotherapy device used as an open care unit, the preset air humidity cannot be set with the air humidifier, on the other hand, but the humidity of the ambient air is, in general, present. In hybrids used as thermotherapy devices, it is possible to change over between the two modes of operation, i.e., the operation as a closed incubator with the closed covering hood and operation as an open care unit. The covering hood is guided by a guide mechanism for mechanically guiding the motion of the covering hood between the closed and open positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,499 B1 shows a thermotherapy device. A covering hood is moved here with a linear drive simply upwardly from the bottom and vice versa for moving the covering hood between the closed and open positions. A translatory motion is performed here in each case. The heat radiation source is integrated in the covering hood. The open covering hood undesirably interferes with X-ray and transport. Furthermore, the heat radiation source is switched off for safety reasons in the closed position, so that condensation of water vapor on the covering hood or on the walls of the basic housing may occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,914 shows a thermotherapy device with a movable covering hood. The covering hood is a two-part hood and can be moved upwardly between the closed position and the open position, on the one hand, by a translatory motion, and each of the two parts can be additionally pivoted by 90° during the motion from the closed position into the open position and vice versa. The covering hood interferes with the access of the care staff to the patient on the support in the open position because the covering hood is located in the head area of the staff in the open position.
A thermotherapy device with a pivotable covering flap is known from WO 2009/073693 A1. The covering flap can be pivoted about an axis of pivot or rotation in the transverse direction of the thermotherapy device and, furthermore, transparent walls of the basic housing can be additionally folded down. However, access to the patient is disadvantageously hindered in the open position of the covering hood, especially in the head area of the patient.
A thermotherapy device with a pivotable covering hood is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,629. In a section at right angles to the axis of pivot or rotation, the covering hood has the shape of a circle segment, i.e., of a part of a circle. Only about half of the area above the support for the neonate is released by the covering hood in the open position of the covering hood, so that the support continues to be inaccessible due to the covering hood or a part of the basic housing at the other half above the support for the neonate. The support for the neonate is thus disadvantageously accessible to a limited extent only in an open position of the covering hood. The freedom of movement of the care staff is thus greatly limited especially for X-raying or for the care of the neonate on the support in an open position of the covering hood.